4 things about energy efficiency in iron and steel making
Iron and steel are essential to our everyday lives. They are used in the construction of the cities we live in, the vehicles that move us and the goods we use. However, most iron and steel production still relies on traditional fossil-fuel based technologies. To enable a more sustainable future and meet global climate and energy goals, it’s estimated that the iron and steel industry will need to cut its emissions by 50% by 2050. This means that the production processes need to be both decarbonized and made more efficient.
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Decarbonizing and improving energy efficiency in the iron and steel industry.Read the white paper
1. The steel industry is the world’s largest industrial consumer of coal.
The steel industry uses coal to meet 75% of its energy needs. Together, iron and steel making account for about 7% of total global CO2 emissions.
2. Motor systems in iron and steel plants lose up to 70% of their energy through inefficiencies
In iron and steel plants, motor systems are used to run applications like fans, compressors, pumps and rolling mills. Although these motors systems consume only about 7% of the energy overall, it’s been estimated that up to 70% of the energy consumed by the motors in a steel plant is lost and wasted due to system inefficiencies.
3. Technologies are available to decarbonize steel production
Some technologies are already in use and under development which will help the industry achieve reduce the use fossil fuels in its processes. For example, electric arc furnaces can be used in place of basic oxygen furnaces, while hydrogen can be used as a reducing agent instead of carbon and coke.
4. Modernizing motor systems can lead to significant reductions in energy costs
Applications in iron and steel making often have variable loads, which means that motor systems that rely on mechanical speed control are not operating at their optimum efficiency. By using variable speed drives (VSD) to control motors, these applications can be made much more efficient. For example, adding VSDs to the fans used in a basic oxygen furnace can reduce power demand and the associated costs by about 20%.
